Tim Kawakami: Perhaps this was a glimpse of Alex Smith’s future

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The San Francisco 49ers' Alex Smith passes against the Seattle Seahawks in the first quarter of their NFC West contest played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010. (Dan Honda/Staff)

Two plays into Sunday, it felt and sounded like any other 49ers Sunday of the past several seasons, only angrier.

Candlestick Park rang with boos, and Alex Smith heard them.

Of course he did. He’s Alex Smith, just back in (again) as the 49ers’ starting quarterback, and he threw incomplete passes on the team’s first two plays.

Therefore: A jeering serenade at the end of his 49ers career.

“I didn’t really think it was going to happen in the first two plays,” Smith said with a little laugh afterward.

Then something odd happened: On his third pass, Smith whistled a 22-yard completion to Vernon Davis. Three plays later, he threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Davis, and there was only applause and appreciation from there.

It helped that the 49ers defense produced five Seattle turnovers on the way to an easy 40-21 victory that kept the 49ers (5-8) alive in the weird NFC West race.

But you can’t go far analyzing this game without stumbling upon Smith’s career performance and placing it in the context of his haphazard 49ers career.

“He’s always under pressure, he’s always under the microscope, and he just manages to come through,” Davis said. “You know he’ll fight through adversity any day.”

Yes, Smith has had too many career twists — and too many failures — to call any single game a turning point or a resurrection.

Sunday, Alex Smith was back in for Troy Smith, five games after Troy Smith replaced him, partly due to Alex’s minor shoulder injury and partly due to his poor 2010 performance.

It’s still probably too late for Alex Smith to change his fate (almost certainly gone from the 49ers after this season) or the 49ers’ (change everything this offseason).

This one, however, was unique: In the 13th game of his sixth 49ers season, Smith finally looked at peace as an NFL quarterback. And even Smith wasn’t disputing that conclusion.

“For the first time, at least since I’ve been here, we really let the game come to us,” Smith said. “Everyone just did their job and let the plays come to us.

“The difference — speaking obviously of when I was in there the first six games — we’d have moments out there, but then moments where we’d force the ball, especially me.”

Smith completed 17 of 27 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns without an interception.

That was good for a career-best 130.9 passer rating, topping the 120.5 mark he registered against the Raiders in 2006.

“I saw things well, and I was patient,” Smith said. “That’s what sticks in my mind. Third down even, tough situations, stayed patient, made good decisions. In the past, I feel like I had stretches of that, then all of a sudden make a bonehead play.”

Maybe the bonehead plays were still on the mind of coach Mike Singletary, who could have trumpeted his decision to go back to Alex Smith. Instead, Singletary was decidedly close to the vest after the game.

“I thought he did a pretty decent job of getting the ball where it needed to be for the most part,” Singletary said.

Alex Smith will start Thursday in San Diego. Beyond that, the 49ers probably can’t and won’t make any further conclusions. They’re too jumbled and too desperate for that.

For his part, Smith laughed about the early boos, pointing out that the first incompletion was a throwaway when the called screen pass was covered.

Smith said he was proudest about his pass late in the second quarter, when the 49ers were facing third-and-4 and saw the Seahawks setting up for a full-tilt blitz.

He found a wide-open Brian Westbrook, who turned and ran for a 62-yard score that made it 27-7, game over. A tricky play that the 49ers have seldom pulled off in Smith’s tenure.

In some ways, that felt like the first pass of the rest of Alex Smith’s career. He is 26, has been through six offensive coordinators, two head coaches and several bad injuries. He is a free agent at the end of the season, and the 49ers could go in a thousand different directions.

This era is probably coming to an end. And after the game, Smith sounded as if he has come to grips with all of it.

“You look at quarterbacks, no one has it easy,” Smith said. “Every guy that has a long career in this game has ups and downs.”

This is only the first part of his career; Smith has to believe that what comes next probably will be better than what has occurred so far.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.